Dr. Daisy Alexander could do fairly complex mathematical calculations in her head. That might not be a surprise to the thousands of students she taught during her 40-year career in Kershaw County schools, but how she used it might.

At its Tuesday meeting, the Kershaw Board of School Trustees received a report on the portion of Phase 2 of the Kershaw County School District's (KCSD) facilities equalization plan regarding North Central area schools. KCSD Executive Director for Operations Billy Smith led the presentation which included the following items:

The circus came to town for Baron DeKalb Elementary School students. Ms. Farnum's first grade class completed a unit of study about the circus and researched and wrote about circus acts and animals. Students rehearsed circus acts and performed in front of the 4 and 5-year-old kindergarten students, first and second grade students and 43 friends and family members. The acts included clowns, dancing bears, lions, elephants, acrobats and a strongman.

Mt. Pisgah Elementary School (MPES) Principal David Branham has a philosophy of how academic success in students can be predicted. For Branham, academic success is based on how much time a student spends reading both in and out of school. MPES currently has a very successful reading program in place, Branham said.

Ron Blackmon, a member of the Kershaw County Board of School Trustees, wants to know why discussions on recreation programs and school consolidations never seem to include Midway Elementary School (MES).

The Applied Technology Education Campus (ATEC) showed improvement in several national career and technical education performance standards for 2013, according to results released by the S.C. Department of Education.

Midway Elementary School (MES) has been offering free Rosetta Stone English classes to members of Hispanic families. The program currently has 10 participants, according to MES Media Specialist Benjamin Higgins.

The Kershaw County Board of School Trustees voted recently to hire Camden native Steve Abbott as the district's new professional development director. Abbott replaces John Gardner, who recently retired.

Lugoff-Elgin Middle School (L-EMS) Principal Karen Bullard is the Kershaw County School District's (KCSD) Principal of the Year. A panel of school and district administrators voted to select her for the honor. Bullard began serving as L-EMS' principal in 2010 after serving as Camden High School's assistant principal. She and her husband are originally from Whiteville, N.C., and have two college-age daughters.

Members of Kershaw County Council attended the Kershaw County Board of School Trustees meeting Tuesday evening to hear a presentation on a possible joint economic development campus here. Others attending the meeting included representatives from Central Carolina Technical College (CCTC), the city of Camden, the towns of Bethune and Elgin, Kershaw County Committee of 100, Kershaw County Chamber of Commerce, KershawHealth, Santee Lynches Council of Governments, the Kershaw County Vocational Education Foundation and Santee-Wateree Rural Transit Authority.